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Yet another blog. My friends telling me, I’m crazy starting another blog yet again. But I didn’t found another good solution to present my photos of gully covers.

I like gully covers because almost every bigger city has its own with the emblem of the city. Additionally they are round, my favorite geometric shape, and give a very interesting, geometric motif with their surroundings. Therefore I started taking photos of them while traveling.

To give them a place and let them not just sit on my hard drive and collect dust, I started a new tumblr blog called “gullydeckel” (the German word for gully cover). I will post every week one photo. Maybe you like to look at them too, then hop over to my new blog. I think, they are beautiful.

After such a long blog break, it’s hard to get back into a rhythm of blogging. So I thought it would be best to blog as much as possible to keep me going and make it a new (old) habit. What would be better than to make it into a challenge:

“Blog at least one photo and one sentence everyday.”

I hope, this little challenge keeps me sane in this messy time of year, my creativity rising and my focus on the good things.

So I’ll be following her daily prompts and will post it on my old IG account @momentstolivefor. I lost interest in it some time ago and started new at @sabinecrafts with simply crafty posts. Now I’m concentrating my personal life and daily moments again on @momentstolivefor. I’m really looking forward to this fresh start and new possibilities.

When I reread my blog lately the posts that really got to me and triggered emotions, were not the ones planed and worked on the longest, but the little ones from the August Break. I know, they are not the ones you’re most interested in, because they hold no real value or information for you, but I love them, because the images hold memories and feelings. So look forward to some emotional, more personal photos from my life. A little December documentary.

While reading and looking at all those blogs you suggested and some I found while wandering the internet (Pinterest and Instagram in particular), I found these gorgeous, inspiring, fabulous blogs. I still can’t believe, how much creativity and loveliness is out there. There are over one hundred thousands blogs in my favorite categories, that are worth being followed. And I’m so sad, I simply can’t. Thank you crafty girls (and guys) for putting all these amazing ideas out there and share them with us. Thanks to you this makes the world so much more beautiful and colorful.

I fell in love with Bianca’s blog within the first three posts and it made me smile and even laugh out loud. Additionally I love the photo style and the cool photos of her son. Thank you Mary for suggesting it.

Thank you to all who suggested blogs. They were all fun to read and several went on my reading list. Here are the blogs that I added to my feed, all wonderful & inspiring in their own way:

DIY, Scrapbooking & Crafts:

Fall For DIY: Beautiful simple blog about DIYs. The pictures are gorgeous and the ideas fresh and new.

Simple As That: A series about organization of photos, additionally tipps and ideas around crafting and cooking.

One of my goals this month is to find new marvelous blogs to read. From time to time I clean my feed of all the blogs, that don’t inspire me any longer or that talk about themes no longer relevant to me. My focus in life is always changing and so is my taste. Since I’m mostly around the same blog themes lately, it’s hard to find really new blogs. Where are the blogrolls everyone had on her and his blog two years ago? It was the best way to find new amazing blogs.

This is the reason, why I would like to ask you, to tell me your favorite blog in the comments. The one, who suggests the blog I will love the most, will win a surprise package, stuffed with fabulous things. The call ends at Feb 26th 6PM CET and is open to everyone. I will announce the winner at March 08th.

Here are some things I love to read about: crafts, photography, travel, art, blogging business, art journaling, simplifying, life lessons, scrapbooking, projects, goals, … and some more. But I’m totally open to new themes. I love beautiful photos that inspire me and make me want to get better at it. Texts that make me think about life and myself. Projects (craft, photography, life) which keep me thinking about new projects for my own. Crafts that lead to new directions in my work.

Here are my all time favorite blogs I read religiously, most of them for years:

Crafts, Scrapbooking & Project Life:

A Beautiful Mess: DIY, photography projects, decoration, fashion and simply a lot of inspiration to make by hand.

Hey guys, I know, I’m much too late for it, but I wanted to do it anyway. In September I got nominated for the blog hop by two lovely ladies Aimee of ‘Betwixt & Between’, which scrapbooking pages makes me jealous and her layouts inspire me, and Lauren of ‘Lauren likes’, the co-founder of Get Messy and inspiring blogger. Thanks again, you two, for the nomination!

What are you currently working on?
Mostly catching up on Project Life 2014 and getting my photos in the backlog from school time and later into other Project Life albums. Additionally I work on art journal pages for Get Messy, my #365craftingtime challenge and since start of the year my crafty year 2015 project with 53 little or bigger crafty projects. Beside that I have a minialbum, I want to make from our last vacation in Denmark. There’s a lot going on, but it’s fun to jump from one project to another.

How does your work differ from others?
I think, I have a really simple and clean style, although really colorful and with playful patterns. Messy pages are not my thing, although there are so many beautiful examples out there. But it’s simply not my style. Within my minialbums, photobooks and art journals the main focus is on one or two pictures or photos, without much embellishments or paper scraps around it.

Why do you create?
SImply, because it makes me happy. It’s my thing. I love to work with my hands and create something beautiful, that I or other like to look at and make their lives a little bit more colorful and happy. I love having eyecatching things all around me. I look at them and smile. Additionally I like to make unique things, in my very own style.

What is your process?
I think, I don’t really have one. I work and create as I go. Most of the time I look for inspiration on the internet, mainly blogs & Pinterest, collect the ideas or if something really gets to me, I sit down and try it instantly.

My process with minialbums is a little bit different. Maybe I look for inspiration on the interent, but most of the time I start with the photos and try to find a layout that suits them. Then I print them in the needed format and make a book of them. Only after that I start to add embellishments and maybe journal a little bit into the book. But mostly the little books are unfinished without journaling. Journaling is hard for me. I’ve accustomed to let the photos speak for themselves.

I’m so behind. I’m so behind with everything. I’m so unorganized at the moment, and I have no, really no idea why.

I miss almost every birthday from dear friends and forget to write a card.

I didn’t manage to at least look at my blog feed for weeks, so I missed totally, that I was nominated by the lovely, dear Aimee of Betwixt & Between for the blog hop. Thank you again, dear Aimee.

I forgot to send text and pictures to a lovely blog friend, who wants to feature me, for weeks.

I’m not able to answer emails and comments at the moment. I just don’t do it.

I have a hard time to write new blog posts. Not that I have no ideas, my notebooks are bursting of post ideas, but I don’t find the time to write them. Mostly I just write and post, no chance to prepare even some of them in advance.

I’m feeling overwhelmed by all the information on my feed, blogs, Instagram, facebook… Don’t know, how to take it all in and make something useful from it.

I’ve lost track of my finances.

I feel major unorganized and have problems doing the simple, regular jobs like cleaning our home, do sport regularly or go to the hairdresser.

There’s something odd going on, nothing serious, but I’m one of the most organized people normally. So I have to figure out, why I lost this power so completely and how to get it back. I want to establish some new routines in life and for the blog. Therefore I decided to take a break at blogging. The only thing I will follow through with for the next weeks is my #365craftingtime challenge and posting on Instagram. I plan to be back at the beginning of December.

until then, be well and enjoy the fall season

PS: If you like to follow me on this little journey, you can do this on the Everest app. I will post my progress and every step I’ll take to organize my life, finances and blog.

I love Caylee’s concept for feature posts. It’s genius. She doesn’t want you to answer her questions via text, but instead craft something in your very own style. This was the most fun I had in a long, long time crafting an entire evening and designing these layouts. Hop over to Caylee’s beautiful, inspiring blog to see the other layouts. Thank you again, Caylee, for this great opportunity and the fun I had thanks to you!

Thanks to Carin of Moose Travelling, I’ve got the Liebster Award. ‘Liebster’ is actually German and means “favorite, lovely, nice, dearest”. It’s not an award in the usual way. It’s more of a challenge cup or chain letter, but in a good way. If you are awarded with it, you have to answer 11 personal questions, asked by the former cup owner. Additionally you have to propose 11 new questions and nominate 10 other bloggers. It’s meant for new bloggers with less than 200 followers on bloglovin.

So I thought it would be fun to answer the questions and nominate some of my favorite bloggers and get to know them better, too. Since the content is too long for one post, I will post the second part on Monday. But first here are the answers to Carin’s lovely questions.

1. What’s your somewhat secret pleasure (or one of them)?

One of my (secret) pleasures is staying in bed as long as possible and just read a book or blog feeds or surf the internet. That’s a thing, we – my boyfriend and I – try to do every weekend, at least every Sunday, when there are no dates. It’s my favorite time of week. With our cats cuddling inbetween our blankets and sleeping on our legs, while we’re reading.

2. What is your favorite quote?

The quote that sounds most with me at the moment is: „Do something today for a better tomorrow.“ That’s the one quote that accompanies me for over two months. It’s the most motivating one I’ve found so far. Because it states exactly what will make the difference. I have to do something today, everyday and may it be a tiny action, it will better my future in a way. If I do nothing, nothing will change or probably not in the way I want it to.

3. What do you eat for breakfast?

I’m not a breakfast person. Most of the time I eat nothing till lunch time. All I need is a cup of coffee, when I get up. But when I can convince myself to eat something, then I like cereals, especially spelt cereals with dried berries and yoghurt. But since I’ve started at my new job, I have a guilty pleasure of buying a chocolate croissant once or twice a week. They are so delicious!

4. What is your favorite recipe?

I have to say: lasagne. Although I’m a pleasure eater and like to eat a lot, that’s the one thing I’ve always come back to. I’m a little Garfield. You know: drink too much coffee, hate Mondays and love lasagne. But if you want to know, the one recipe I like to cook or bake myself the most, that would be the lemon platter cake of my mom. It’s very simple and fast to make, but so delicious; sweet and sour at the same time.

5. What do you like to do but aren’t really good at?

At the moment that’s definitely knitting. A few weeks ago, I started meeting with a group of young creatives in Berlin, where everyone does what he or she likes, but mostly knitting and crocheting. I started knitting because I learned it already in school, but was never good at it. My scarves always had a „waist“ because I knitted too firm or too loose. So when I met this amazing group, I gave it another try. We will see, if I can finish my first well shaped scarf till end of the year.

6. Which song would you liked to be played/performed at your funeral/cremation? (Which of course is still very far away!)

What a question! I had to swallow at first but remembered that I asked myself the same question years ago, when I participated in a school workshop about death. Back then I would have chosen another song, but it would have been a happy one too. Because I don’t think of a funeral as an solely sad event, but a time to remember the dead person and what good he or she had brought into the world. And to celebrate this person and his life. So at the moment I would like to „hear“ „Happy“ from Pharrel Williams at my funeral. Because that’s what I am at the moment. And this song kicks my mood even more every time I hear it.

7. What’s you number one on your bucket list?

Honestly, I don’t know. My bucket list is long, say alone for Berlin, and I’ve already experienced and did so much on my bucket list. But I don’t have the number one thing, that I have to do. But if you are interested in my bucket list, here are three that at least more important than some others: travel New Zealand, make a bike trip through Europe and write and publish a book.

8. What is you favorite blog and why?

That’s a really hard question. Because there are so many, many creative, inspirational blogs out there… at the moment I would say Elise Blaha-Cripe’s blog. I treasure her well written, thoughtful posts, her creative ideas and her happy and meaningful photos. It’s a mystery to me, how she has a beautiful, content filled post up almost everyday. I like to read her stories about little Ellerie and her home and business stories. She’s a real inspiration and ideal to me.

9. On what do you waste time?

Mostly on Pinterest and Online shops like Etsy or Dawanda, looking for inspirational products and projects. I try to minimize the time wasting, and I’ve become better. But it’s still one of my favorite things to waste time.

10. What is your favorite picture and why? (show & tell)

First I thought this was a hard question too, because there are so many beautiful pictures I adore. But when I started going through some of my favorite pictures in my mind, I got stuck on one very fast. It shows my boyfriend and me with my godchild, a moment after I was asked, if I would like to become her godmother. I was so overwhelmed, so happy. This was one of the happiest moments in my life and it shows on the big smile on my face.

11. What is the most beautiful or nicest thing you’ve ever made yourself?

I think, that’s the wedding paper I designed for my best friend and her husband. I put months of work into it and that showed at the end. I collected stories and letters of friends and family about the happy couple. And it was amazing, how many shared wonderful, emotional stories about the two. Many wedding guests told me, that it was the perfect wedding paper they’ve ever seen and that it looked like a professional magazine. My best friend and her husband shed some tears reading it. It was the perfect gift.

It is unbelievable, as always, how fast this one year past. Last year on this day I started this blog. I wrote my very first post and published it. I wasn’t sure, what this journey would bring. If I would be inspired and organized enough to keep this blog going, but I did, I have and I’m so happy about it. So yesterday I did a little brainstorming about my blogging experiences and dreams:

what I like, what I love:

Although it’s very time consuming, it makes me happy; seeing all my stuff out there for you to see and inspire you, reading your comments, being part of this great blogger community.

I love the blogger community and how they act on so many blogs, how they comment and engage in everyones life. It’s like a big friendzone.

I love the creativity on blogs, which is such an inspiration to me. There is so much creativity out there in the world, that I sometimes forget, that it’s not the only life I’m living. I could craft the whole day just to bring some of these gorgeous ideas to life.

what I’ve learned:

If you have a 40 hour/week job, like me, you have to prepare posts for at least two weeks ahead. Otherwise life happens and you don’t find the time or energy to write.

A blog is ongoing work, even if it’s just the sidebar, that needs to be updated from time to time.

You need to deliver quality work to get your posts promoted nowadays (like on craftgawker f.e.). The idea alone isn’t enough.

You should always be up-to-date with technique (like pin it-buttons on your pictures). I still have to solve this one.

You always will have more ideas than time to write the posts.

what I still have to learn, what I want to learn:

How to write better DIYs and take better photos with the perfect light.

How to get you guys to engage more in this blog and maybe even start a discussion in the comments.

How to get the perfect style for my photos and pictures for this blog.

How to work more effectively, when time is short.

what I would like to achieve:

Redesign my blog – make it look and feel professional (my next big project).

Develop more simple and fun photo projects.

Write a self-paced ecourse about minialbums – how would you like that?

Write a book about minialbums someday.

These are some of the things, that came into mind, when I thought about my first year of blogging. I’m so excited, what the next year will bring and where I am in one year from now. I’m so glad, you are with me on this wonderful journey and thank you for your kind comments and reading my blog.
If you have any questions or have a wish, what you would like to read here, please contact me: